Dodgers manager Dave Roberts Comparing this weekend’s series at Fenway Park vs Boston Red Sox for the qualifying rounds.
If that’s the case, the team would do better to hope, when the real post-season begins, that they play as they did in the opening win on Friday than to play Losing on Saturday, 8-5.
If Friday showed all the ways Dodgers They could excel next October, as Saturday revealed some of their remaining weaknesses.
They got an ineffective outing Julio Urillaswho gave up six runs in six innings to snap his recent string of strong starts.
Read more: Mookie Betts has moved on from Boston, but the trade is still painful for Red Sox fans
They were unable to take advantage of many late opportunities at the plate, and squandered bases-loaded chances in the eighth and ninth.
And they lost their cool in a lively environment with roberts and Max Muncie You are thrown out after the eighth inning ends with a missed third strike call.
Extrapolating too much from the late-August series could certainly be a poor exercise – especially from a series defined by the long-awaited homecoming and emotional encounters between its many players. Mookie Pets And Justin Turner Most notably, their old teams.
However, Saturday put the first-place Dodgers in one of the high-pressure situations they are likely to face as the rest of the regular season winds down.
And although they still went stellar 20-4 in the month of August, miles ahead of the rest of the division, there are lessons to be learned about the state of their team.
Uriah’s performance was the biggest subplot.
For five innings, the left-hander cruised, holding the Red Sox (69-61) to only two runs while striking out eight hits.
But then, in the bottom of the sixth, his outing collapsed.
Adam Duvall hit a three-run homer, and caught enough of a 353-foot fly ball to pass the Green Monster (Houston’s Minute Maid Park was the only other ballpark that would have been a home run).
Ureas was also penalized for a rare error in execution, issuing a non-competitive five-pitch walk to Trevor Storey at bat immediately after Duvall’s outburst.
“You see, he wasn’t involved in that story,” said Roberts. “It was very frustrating.”
Read more: ‘What happened has happened.’ The departure of the Dodgers’ Justin Turner raises mixed feelings
This free pass — Uriah’s first in three games — led to the fourth inning, an RBI single off Reese McGuire, and helped the Red Sox turn a 4-2 deficit into an insurmountable 6-4 lead.
“The team gave me the lead and I just couldn’t keep it,” Llorías said in Spanish. “Obviously, that’s what hurts.”
The game was a microcosm of Urías’ up-and-down season, leaving last year’s Cy Young Award finalist with the worst earned run average of 4.41 this year, his last before entering free agency this winter.
At times, he looked amazing, including the four-start stretch leading up to Saturday’s contest in which he went 4-0 with a 1.44 ERA.
But for a Dodgers team that will need the 27-year-old, waiting for a free agent to execute his rotation in the playoffs, Uriah’s inconsistent production remains an annoying subplot.
Even so, the Dodgers (79-49) are still on the verge of rallying.
Entering the eighth at 7-4, they got one run back on an RBI single from Betts (one of his three hits on the day). Freddie Freeman walked the next batter to load the bases with only one out.
From there, however, the rally fizzled out, with two of the team’s second division stars – the ones they will need to give the squad balance in October – empty in the important spots.
Will Smith flew poorly into shallow right field, continuing his August slump with a fruitless out.
Then, Muncie hit his controversial third, reaching the 0-2 break which was well short of the strike zone.
Muncie initially escaped being hit with his racket with both hands, but was eventually ejected by plate umpire Jordan Baker after continuing to argue over the call.
“I told him the ball was down, and his response was, ‘You throw your bat, and that kind of locked me up a little bit,'” Muncie said. “So I just replied, ‘I want you to close it in a big situation like that. And he said, “Oh, okay,” and he kicked me out.
Roberts was also eliminated after running down the field and intercepting a call, resulting in his ejection for the first time this season.
The Dodgers had one last chance in the ninth inning, when Betts came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs, marking the potential go-ahead.
Read more: “I needed to feel Dodger Stadium again.” Kiki Hernandez is reborn in Los Angeles
However, his recent drive to center wasn’t deep enough, snapping the Dodgers’ winning streak to three games — and giving them an early taste of the challenges they might face in October.
“We had a lot of tough losses, we didn’t play well in the periods when we didn’t play well, and we responded,” Roberts said. “It’s a good environment. But we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
